Fatal Fraud - Marie Force

Chapter One

If there was one benefit to Sam’s husband, Nick, being vice president of the United States, it was the motorcade that conveyed them with admirable efficiency wherever they wanted to go. As they made their way northbound on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, Sam appreciated that she also got to bring friends on this mission to see their colleague Sergeant Tommy Gonzales in rehab. Since the other benefits of Nick being VP were few and far between, Sam decided they needed to enjoy this one.

“This is the life.” Sam’s partner, Detective Freddie Cruz, had his arm around his wife, Elin, who was snuggled up to him.

“Seriously,” Michael Wilkinson said. His wife, Detective Jeannie McBride, sat across from him, next to Sam, who was in her happy place—pressed up against Nick.

If they had to be trapped in the car for more than an hour, and neither of them had to drive, you bet your ass she was going to enjoy the ride. “The best part is that people get the hell out of the way of the Secret Service,” Sam said.

“Why do they get all that respect when people ignore us?” Jeannie asked.

“A very good question,” Sam said. “What is it about the Secret Service that gets people to do what they say?”

“It must be about the very important people they protect,” Freddie said.

“We’re incredibly important,” Nick said, drawing a laugh from the others. He never took himself as seriously as the Secret Service and others took him.

“Can we discuss the elephant in the SUV?” Michael asked.

Sam groaned. “Do we have to?” One of the network Sunday shows had been on fire that morning, speculating on the next presidential race and the likely candidates for both parties. Naturally, Nick’s name was at the top of the Democratic ticket, even if he’d given no public indication of his plans.

Sam was painfully aware that he was struggling with the decision. She prayed he wouldn’t run but kept her mouth shut on the matter to give him the space he needed to decide for himself. In the meantime, she held her breath and waited while the rest of the world went wild with speculation and assumptions. “Of course he’ll run,” one pundit had said recently. “He’d be insane not to.”

In Sam’s opinion, he’d be insane if he did run and brought that kind of endless scrutiny down on them. The thought of that spiked her anxiety into the red zone, so she tried not to go there. They received more than enough scrutiny as the second couple.

“You may not want to talk about it, but everyone else does,” Michael said.

“People need to mind their own business,” Sam said.

“I hate to tell you,” Freddie said, “but when you’re the vice president, your business is their business.”

Sam scowled at him. “That’s not helpful.”

Nick squeezed her shoulder in a show of silent support. They were both excruciatingly aware that they were going to have to decide sooner rather than later. Sam hoped it would be much, much, much later. She didn’t want him to run for president, and he didn’t want to run either. But sometimes it felt like nobody was listening to either of them as invisible forces propelled them toward an inevitable destiny.

“On another note,” Freddie said, “did you see the thing in the Star this morning about the Kent woman who defrauded all her rich friends in some glorified Ponzi scheme?”

“We didn’t get a chance to read the paper before we left,” Sam said. “We were busy getting Scotty and the twins ready to spend the day with Tracy and Mike.” Her sister and brother-in-law had a full day planned for Sam’s kids and their cousins.

“Apparently, the Feds have been working on this case for almost a year, and it all came to a head this week when they charged her in federal court. Up until then, most of the friends didn’t know they’d been defrauded. From what the paper said, it sounds like there were some fireworks among the privileged class as the word got out that their money is probably gone.”

”So let me get this straight,” Sam said. “She basically stole from her friends?”

“Yep,” Freddie said, “and family. She got them to invest in some business she was supposedly starting, and then lo and behold, she walked away with the money and won’t tell anyone what she did with it.”

“How much are we talking?” Jeannie asked.

“About twenty million,” Freddie said.

“I have so many thoughts about this,” Sam said. “First of all, who just gives

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